


Wandering Home (Where You Belong)

by HighWarlockMegaraBane



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: Brotherly Love, Brothers, Crow and Jack love to fight, Crow makes poor decisions, Drinking, Gen, Language, Platonic Love, Squabbling, language in the form of drunk Crow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 08:08:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16615145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HighWarlockMegaraBane/pseuds/HighWarlockMegaraBane
Summary: What's wrong, little bird, are you lost? Follow the stars, they'll take you home. And listen to the constellations - they'll whisper to you in the night and soothe your nightmares. Just wait and see, the dawn will be brighter.





	Wandering Home (Where You Belong)

**Author's Note:**

> I just love writing drunk characters, and also Crow. And also Drunk!Crow.
> 
> This story is entirely platonic, but if you want to read into the nuances and pull out ships go right ahead, I won't stop you.
> 
> I also reference (very vaguely) kiite's Afterthought when Crow's on his rant; yes that is intentional, and yes you should read it because kiite is an amazing author and I love her/him to bits and pieces. S/he writes so beautifully and I love their stories. Go check them out for SURE!
> 
> Anyway. Have fun! This was NOT beta'd so if you see errors, that's my bad.

Yusei sighed to himself as even the blaring music in his earbuds didn’t drown out the shouts slowly escalating from the second floor. Bruno had long since abandoned his typing and turned to face the stairwell, worry evident in the creases between his eyebrows.

               “Can you hear anything they’re saying?” the onyx-haired boy finally asked, pulling one earbud out and dangling the cord over the shell of his ear.

               “They’re fighting,” the bluenette supplied unhelpfully. “What about, I don’t know.”

               “You think it’s still about when Crow hit Jack’s Runner?” Yusei asked as the unmistakable sound of something shattering echoed through the garage.

               “That’s probably part of it,” Bruno replied, rubbing one hand through his hair. “What did they just break?”

               “I hope it wasn’t my favorite mug,” Yusei replied, running his fingers along the side of Phoenix Whirlwind, which he currently straddled. His fingertips found the deep scratches, about eight inches along the body, unable to be buffed out or painted over. It was a simple enough repair—all he had to do was find a piece of sheet metal, gloss it, and weld it into place—but something that Jack was less than keen to overlook.

               Of course, this wasn’t the first time something between the two of them had blown up; last week, it had been when Crow had gotten home late from work and disturbed the King’s sleep. Yusei was getting tired of listening to them fight, and judging by the looks Bruno shot them over meals, so was he.

               He suddenly became aware of the silence. It was stifling.

               “They stopped,” Bruno murmured, his gaze never leaving the second landing. “Do you think—”

               “Crow, I didn’t mean it—”

               “Go fuck yourself, _King._ ”

               Booted footsteps raced down the stairs, a heavier pair slightly behind. Crow was already shoving his phone into his pocket and swinging around the banister, his boots hardly touching the stairs as he near flew down the second flight. Yusei removed his other headphone as Jack followed, stumbling slightly. He stopped on the landing.

               “Crow—” he tried again, eyes wide. Crow flipped him a bird over his shoulder, not pausing as he threw himself onto Blackbird and patted his thighs for his keys. He jerked his helmet on and flipped the visor down, feet already locking into the throttles even before the kickstand was all the way up.

               “Where are you going?” Yusei asked. Crow gave no sign he heard; he managed to find his key and cranked the ignition. Blackbird roared to life, ringing in his ears as the throttle was abused. Yusei rose to his feet.

               “Crow,” he shouted over the noise, but the other teen, with a screaming peel-out, was flying from the garage. The roar of his engine faded fast, leaving the two mechanics standing in stunned silence.

               “Dammit,” Jack muttered, rubbing his face in his hands. “Goddammit.”

 

Crow’s hands were shaking on the ignition, despite him clutching the handles so hard his fingertips were numb. He knew he was speeding—he _knew_ it. His speedometer read 200 kmph and was slowly climbing. He couldn’t bring himself to care. So what if he got a ticket? So what if he wrecked?

               The wind bit his cheeks and cut through his shirt like knives, chilling him despite the warm evening sun. His cheeks were cold but not wet. _Not wet._

               He blinked hard, finally unclenching his teeth from each other. The muscles in his jaw ached in protest, making him groan quietly as it throbbed through his temples.

               _Arrogant jackal_ , he thought bitterly. _Stupid king._

               Yes, it might have been his fault when he had hit Phoenix Whirlwind hard enough that it had fallen on its side. That didn’t give Jack any right to say those awful things.

               _In his defense_ , the calm side of Crow’s brain argued, _you said some awful things to him too._

               _I don’t want to give him shit,_ he argued back, leaning forward as he changed lanes rapidly, cutting in front of a car that beeped at him. _He doesn’t deserve shit._

               It took until Crow hit the exit for him to realize where he was habitually headed—one of his old hangouts in Satellite that managed to survive the renovation. A small bar on the east side where everyone knew his name. It had been a long time since he’d revisited that haunt.

               Despite his inner turmoil, Crow allowed himself a faint smile. That place always made him feel better.

 

Yusei looked up at the clock on the wall as the one in the plaza chimed once. It was one-thirty in the morning. Jack had gone to bed two hours ago. Bruno had been dead on his feet when Yusei insisted he go as well; he was fairly certain the bluenette made it to the computer room and collapsed on the couch.

               It had taken a bit for Jack to quit swearing and sit down long enough for him to tell Yusei and Bruno what had happened. Jack had made some snide comment about the state of his Runner. Crow, who had worked late the night before and been up early to work again, had obviously been too tired to let it slide, and it had escalated quickly.

               The blond had gotten more and more uncomfortable in recounting the ascendingly rude things they had said to each other, until he finally revealed what had resulted in the shattering sound that had initially drawn Yusei’s attention—he hadn’t thought and had told Crow that it would have been better if they hadn’t brought him to Martha’s as kids at all. Crow had grabbed a cup from the sink—not Yusei’s favorite mug, thankfully—and thrown it at the blond.

               Yusei frowned to himself. Hearing Jack repeat the insult, even not directed at him, had stabbed something into his lungs, something so sharp and cold that made it hard to breathe. No wonder Crow had been so upset. When they first brought him to the house, he had snuck out every night for a week and refused to eat unless he was alone and thought no one was around. It had taken a long time for the gun-shy, terrified seven-year-old to relax, and even longer for him to think it was a place for him to belong.

               The fact that Crow had raced out in a fury also worried him—he was fast and reckless at the best of times, much less when he was blinded by anger. Considering they hadn’t had any drop-bys by Trudge and Mina, he figured the likelihood of him being dead or arrested were slim.

               But the question still remained—where had he been for the past half-dozen hours?

               Ten minutes later, Yusei was straddling his own Runner, pulling on his helmet as he scribbled a half-hearted note to whoever came to try to get him to go to bed this time. He pinned it to his work table under a wrench and walked the Yusei Go out the doors and up the ramp before starting the engine and taking off.

 

Crow slammed another two shots, placing each glass upside down on the polished bar. The bartender took them and eyed the boy warily. At least, he thought he was being eyed. Things had started to swim three shots ago.

               “Maybe you should slow down,” Blaze, Crow’s old drinking partner, said worriedly. He still had half his mojito left and was balancing sips between bites from the basket of whatever he had ordered now. Usually, he matched Crow shot for shot, but tonight figured without being asked that someone needed to be relatively sober to make sure the redhead didn’t make any poor decisions.

               Even though watching him make out with his reflection in the mirror was a grand time, tonight probably wasn’t the best night.

               Crow lowered his eyes to the bar, where both hands rested. The cover charge stamp on the back of the left was smudged slightly; the thief traced the ink lines with one fingertip.

               “Maybe you should suck my—”

               “Don’t you have to drive home?” Blaze interrupted before Crow could finish. He gestured at the bartender for another shot, at which point the latter looked at the sober man. He sighed and tapped his glass at the halfway mark— _make it half water._ The bartender nodded and poured the drink.

               “I’ll be fine to drive,” he muttered. “Or who knows? Maybe I’ll crash and die on the way. That’ll be a plus for Jack and Yusei.”

               “Crow, you know that Yusei doesn’t think that, and neither does Jack,” he reprimanded sternly. “They both want you home safe. So do I, for what it’s worth. If you die, who else am I going to find to day-drink with me? No one else can match me shots.”

               “Guess that’s true,” he amended, taking the shot and nearly dropping the glass as he went to set it upside down. “Fine. I’ll do a few more and go home.”

               “If I let you drive home, you’re stopping six shots ago,” Blaze said sternly. “I’m either going to take you home myself or call you a cab.”

               “There’s no need for that, I can take him.”

               Blaze turned at the new voice. A young man came up to Crow’s other side and sat down. The redhead didn’t move from where he was turning the shot glass on the bar. He gestured to the bartender. “I’ll have a glass of milk.”

               “Yusei Fudo, aren’t you?” Blaze asked. “Fortune Cup champion.”

               “That’s me. Sorry, I don’t recognize you,” he said as the bartender set a glass on the counter. Crow beckoned for another, holding up two fingers. The bartender looked between his companions, and when neither disagreed, he complied.

               “Name’s Blaze. This idiot here and I are drinking buddies,” he replied. “Though I figured I’d let him drink alone tonight.”

               “You didn’t gotta come find me, Yusei,” Crow muttered, throwing back one shot, then the other. He coughed on the last one. “I’d’a been home after closing.”

               “Get him a water, please,” Yusei requested, then turned to face his friend. “I came to make sure you hadn’t gotten arrested again. You’ve been out for hours.”

               “I’m an adult. I can take care of myself.” He rested his chin in his palm and frowned at the glass of ice water in front of him. “I don’t want this.”

               “You need to drink it,” Blaze insisted. “You haven’t eaten anything, so if you’re not going to eat, you’re going to drink.”

               “Damned jackals, the lot of you,” Crow swore, suddenly turning to Yusei and grabbing the shoulder of his jacket in a fist. “I didn’t hear you arguing with Jack when he told me I shouldn’t have fucking stayed at Martha’s. I fucking knew it, yeah? Why do you think I tried to run off?” He attempted to push Yusei off the stool, but only succeeded in pushing himself backwards into Blaze’s shoulder. “Shoulda just disappeared.”

               “That’s my cue,” Yusei sighed, rising to his feet and pulling Crow to his with a firm hand on his upper arm and one on his back. “Thanks for taking care of him, Blaze.”

               “I’ll text him in the morning to make sure he’s good,” he replied. Crow angrily grabbed the water, sloshing some of it onto the bar and soaking his glove. He drained it swallow by swallow, some of the water trailing down the sides of his mouth to the hollow of his throat. He slammed it onto the bar and it shattered in his hand. Shards of glass scattered and if he hadn’t been wearing his glove, Blaze was sure he would have cut his hand open.

               “Shit, Crow, come on,” Yusei said, pulling him backwards as he fished in his pocket. The barkeeper sighed and began sweeping the glass into a trashcan.

               “Don’t bother,” Blaze told Yusei, waving him off. “I’ll pay for it. You get him home, yeah?”

               “Fuck you,” Crow said, pointing to the bar. Blaze wasn’t sure who he was referring to.

               “I’ll be back for his Runner in the morning,” Yusei told the bartender, then to Blaze; “Nice to meet you.”

               “And you, Yusei,” Blaze concurred, raising his mojito in a mock toast. “Drive safe.”

 

Crow was vaguely aware of being seated on a Runner, but he came mostly to when the cold night air began to hit his face. He sat up slightly, nearly his full weight laying on Yusei’s back. The other boy smelled of oil and grease under fresh cologne, as well as strawberry shampoo. The wind whipped at his cheeks and stung his face.

               “Where’s Blackbird?” he asked around a tongue that felt too big.

               “Left her at the bar,” Yusei replied. “Don’t worry; I enabled the security system and everything. She’ll be fine til the morning.”

               Crow lay his head back on Yusei’s shoulder, feeling their helmets knock with every bump in the road. “What a man.”

               Streetlights spun by dizzyingly fast, punctuated by a slow-moving car every few feet. Crow watched the lights streak past until his head started to swim, and suddenly his stomach clenched. Both hands gripped his abdomen.

               “Yusei,” he gasped. “Yusei, pull over. I’m going to hurl.”

               Yusei sighed but hit the next exit, pulling off the highway and releasing the arm on the Yusei Go. Crow staggered off, bending double over the guardrail with a groan.

               “Take your helmet—” Yusei began to say but cut himself off as the younger boy began to retch. “Or don’t. That’s fine.”

               Within ten slow, drunken minutes, Crow was back on the Yusei Go, forehead bowed against Yusei’s back with the awful taste still on the backs of his teeth. He must have either fallen asleep or passed out—based on his current intoxication level, either was likely—because before he knew it Yusei was standing, he was falling forward, and they were in the garage.

               “Yuse,” Crow asked, throwing his weight against the backrest of the Yusei Go as he began to unsuccessfully try to remove his own helmet. “I gotta ask.”

               “Ask what?” Yusei replied, setting his own helmet on his workbench and sitting in the wheelie-chair.

               “Was Jack—right? Should I have just never shown up?”

               “No.” Yusei’s bangs whispered around his face as he shook his head. Crow finally managed to get his helmet off but almost dropped it in the process. “Of course he wasn’t. He was just mad and said some stuff he didn’t mean. You both did. But you’re our brother, Crow. Neither of us would trade that for anything.”

               “But even when we were little, I was always a…burden.” His fingers rubbed over his helmet, absently, leaving smudges on the glass of the visor. “Always causing trouble. Runnin’ off all the time. Fighting. Stupid shit.” He looked up, out one of the street-level windows. “Gettin’ marked. Half the time I feel like it would be easier if I… _hadn’t_ bothered you guys.”

               _Jack must’ve really hit a nerve._ Yusei started to respond, but Crow wasn’t done.

               “I must have taken God knows how many years off Martha’s life, getting into the shit I got into,” he continued. “When I broke my arm falling off the roof that year, then I got marked the next. After that it was just a…a downhill slope.” He rubbed a finger under his nose. “Not that it really affected you guys after the Enforcers broke up.”

               “You know we didn’t mean—” Yusei tried to interject.

               “You and Jack stayed in touch, didn’t ya?” he plowed on. “You guys lived together, dueled together. Meanwhile I was struggling to make ends meet, for myself and the kids, at least until Pearson and Bolton showed up. Then Pearson died”—his voice broke, but he swallowed and kept on—“and then Pearson died, and it was just me and the kids. You know—I came looking for you two.”

               Yusei swallowed. _Shit._

               “It was just after Jack left,” he said, lowering his eyes to his hands. “I ran into—what’s his name—Rally? Yeah, Rally. I came looking for Jack first. He told me Jack had left. Gone to hell knows where with your Runner prototype and hadn’t come back. I figured he finally made it to the city, like he’d always dreamed of. Then when he finally started showing up on TV—I hated him" He laughed bitterly, derisively. His voice soared. " _Jesus_ , I hated him!" He turned grey eyes on Yusei. Despite his biting words, they were wet with tears. "And I hated _you_ too, for enabling him!”

               “I didn’t enable him,” Yusei argued. “You said it yourself, he stole my Runner—”

               “I waited,” Crow interrupted again, his voice suddenly quiet. Despite his rampant intoxication and the alcohol-induced color in his face, his eyes were hard. “I waited— _for three years_ I _waited_ —for you to come find me. While Jack’s fame kept growing, I figured you were alone—and you’d come looking for me. And we could live together, like we did years ago. But you didn’t.

               “I finally came looking for you. Evidently, it was just after you left. Rally told me I’d just missed you. That you had followed Jack.” He looked away, biting his lower lip. “How was I supposed to know? How was I supposed to _follow you?_ It took me a long time to figure out that—that I wasn’t. If you had wanted me around, you would have found me. But you didn’t. I was always an afterthought.”

               Yusei looked away. _You were never an afterthought_. But the words wouldn’t come.

               “Tell me, Yusei. Look me in the _eyes_ and tell me you didn’t forget me.” Crow’s voice was shaking, laced with sharp-edged anger and desperation, like a kid woken by a nightmare searching for reassurance that it was just a dream. “Tell me it wouldn’t be better without me.”

               “Crow,” Yusei finally said, very firmly and in a way that posed no room for argument or interruption. “Can I say I didn’t forget you? No. I did. I’m not _proud_ of it but I did. After Jack stole my Runner, that was my sole focus for years, was catching up to him and getting it back, getting Stardust back.

               “I won’t say I thought about you every day because for a long time, I didn’t. But after the Enforcers, I thought about you all the time. You and Jack left together, and then when Jack found me he was alone. He said he didn’t know where you were, that you two had split up a while before and he hadn’t heard from you since. I figured if something _happened_ I would hear. You were always tough, so I didn’t worry about you.”

               Crow’s shoulders heaved and he put his hand to his mouth, biting down hard on the knuckle.

               “And then when we found each other, after the Fortune Cup—the world felt whole again. It felt calmer than it had in a long time. You might not think I’m being honest, but you were always my rock.” Yusei tipped his head. “Jack was always so self-important, it was hard to be anything but ‘Atlas’s Sidekick’ around him. It was Jack first, the world second. You were never like that. You were his polar opposite—you still _are_ —selfless and passionate not about yourself but about the world around you. Always thinking about who you could touch without worrying about how they could touch you in return.”

               “Bullshit,” Crow muttered, but it was weak and trembling.

               “You like to pretend it’s all in self-interest, but I saw you when you dueled Greiger, and how you were fueled by nothing but your rage and desperation for the kids. I sought that selflessness, and never found it for myself. I never realized how much I missed it until I found you again.”

               Yusei shifted so he straddled the back of the chair, crossing his arms on it. “You hold us together, Crow. Why do you think Jack and I split up in the first place? We had the same ambition but different ways of attaining it—it pushed us so far apart that without the Fortune Cup, I don’t think we could ever have bridged that gap. We need someone like you to keep us together and keep us sane." Yusei offered a gentle smile. "You’re our brother, Crow, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

               Crow was sniffling and trying desperately to hide it, furiously rubbing the back of his hand over his eyes. “You asshole,” he mumbled in a voice high-pitched with strain. “First you take me from the bar before I’m done and now you make me cry. I should have just stayed with Blaze.”

               Yusei smiled a rare smile and stood up, holding out a hand to help the redhead stand. “Come on. Let’s get you upstairs.” He pulled Crow’s arm over his shoulder and let the younger boy lean nearly his full weight on him. “There we are.”

               They managed not to disturb Bruno, passed out on the couch, and Crow fell face-first into bed without removing anything. Yusei rolled his eyes but tugged the other boy’s boots off one at a time, setting them up at the end of his bed. He pulled off his headband, which had started to slide anyway, and missed the nightstand completely. Yusei retrieved it and laid it by the lamp. Crow buried his face in his pillow, groaning into the material.

               Yusei shook his head and headed for the door. He had almost pulled it shut when the younger boy said his name.

               “Yeah?”

               “Thanks,” he said softly. “For picking me up.”

               “Anytime, bud. Get some sleep.”

               Yusei shut the door with a click, and heard one echo it. Across the hall, Jack had opened his own door and was standing against the door jamb. Yusei wasn’t at all surprised to see him.

               “Is he alright?” the blond asked softly. “Not hurt or nothin’?”

               “Just boiled as an owl,” Yusei replied. “He’ll be fine.”

               “You know I didn’t mean what I said—right?” he asked. “I was just angry.”

               Yusei touched him on the shoulder. “I know. He does too. But I’d apologize to him in the morning.”

               Jack looked down at his feet as Yusei walked away. “Yeah. I’ll do that.”

 

Holding his toothbrush in his teeth, Yusei used two of the alligator clips on the sink to pin his hair back from his face. He hadn’t showered the night before—after getting Crow home, he had gone straight to sleep—and the remnants of yesterday’s gel made his hair tangled and spiky in all the wrong ways. He had just resumed brushing his teeth when feet pounded in the hallway and the bathroom door was thrown open.

               Crow, hair messy and loose around his ears and shoulders, stumbled past the older boy, one hand over his mouth as he fell to his knees in front of the toilet. Yusei watched him with wide eyes.

               “You alright?” he asked around his mouthful, punctuated by Crow loudly being sick. “I’ll…take that as a no.”

               He rinsed out his toothbrush and set it back in the medicine cabinet, leaning his hip against the sink as Crow leaned his forehead on the rim of the toilet. “So I take it one glass of water wasn’t enough?” he inquired cheekily.

               “Bite me, Fudo,” he moaned. “Just go right the hell ahead and bite me.”

               “I’ll get you some water,” he replied, pulling down a cup and filling it under the tap. Yusei looked up as Jack walked in, loofah in one hand and towel thrown over the opposite shoulder. He took one look at Crow bent over the toilet and wrinkled his nose.

               “So the bathroom’s occupied, then?” he asked, accented voice roughened with sleep. Crow raised a weak middle finger that made Yusei chuckle.

               “I haven’t showered yet, either, so you’re at least second in line,” Yusei told him. “Also, I need you to go with me back to Silver Cup this morning. Blackbird spent the night there.”

               Jack looked away as Crow’s bleary grey eyes peeked up at him through unspiked red bangs. “Sure, I can do that.”

               “Jack,” Crow interjected, “I’m—sorry about yesterday. I shouldn’t have said what I did.”

               Yusei raised an eyebrow as Jack was silent. The blond seemed to be struggling for words, and fleetingly met Yusei’s eyes.

               “I’m…sorry as well,” he stammered out. “I was—out of line. And I shouldn’t have said those things I said.”

               “You owe me one for that,” Crow muttered as his stomach heaved and he was sick again. Jack gently took one of the clips from the counter and pinned Crow’s bangs back for him, rubbing his shoulders.

               “I know.”

               Yusei smiled to himself as he leaned past the shower curtain, turning the water to hot. He could hear Crow swearing, whether at himself or at Jack was uncertain, and Jack’s accented voice replying in turn. They were getting along now, but Yusei was a fool if he tried to make himself believe that it would last long.

               _We’re all so different, but I think that’s what makes us work. And none of us would be here without the others. Things are as they should be._

**Author's Note:**

> So a note on the summary--it's mostly a play on the meanings of each of the boys names. Crow being bird, obviously, and Yusei being the stars, but Jack's is a little more obscure. 'Atlas' can be synonymous to having the weight of the world on one's shoulders (see Atlas in Greek mythology), but it can also be a collection of maps used to navigate. Something to chew on.
> 
> Reviews are love and kudos are life!


End file.
